I don’t know exactly how much money Fred Meijer left behind when he departed this world last week, but I’d proffer a reasonable guess that it was enough to make him part of the dastardly “1 percent.”

You know: Them. Ask any Occupy Wall Streeter about them. They make too much, horde too much and keep other poor saps toiling in subjection to The Man. They’re jerks.

Of course, when they die, it’s customary to regale them with compliments, and the usual media approach to this – certainly in full force in the case of Fred Meijer – is to praise him for that portion of his wealth he gave away in the form of philanthropy, sponsorships and what-have-you. This, we are told, represents his impact on the world around him.

But that’s a load of crap.

Fred Meijer’s impact on the world around him is not represented by his establishment of the Meijer Botanical Gardens, nor by any of his philanthropic giving. These are all well and good, but let’s be real here. Meijer impacted the communities in which he operated, and brought the greatest benefit to these communities, through the profitable operation of the stores that bear his name.

The OWS crowd considers it an article of faith that 1 percenters like Fred Meijer hurt others by amassing more than their share of wealth.

But the manner in which Fred Meijer amassed his wealth brought massive benefits to the communities where his stores operated – not because he was a nice or generous guy necessarily (although he may well have been), but because he understood what you have to do to earn money.

If you live in a community that has a Meijer store, you shop there. Maybe not every day. Maybe not as your first choice. But even if you don’t particularly like shopping at Meijer, there are going to be times when you do so. Maybe Meijer has the item your preferred mom-and-pop grocer doesn’t have, and you need that item. Maybe your baby is screaming at 3 in the morning, and the item you need to deal with the situation isn’t in the cupboard. Who’s open all night? Meijer. So that’s where you go.

Fred Meijer’s stores provide stuff people want at prices they can handle. They’re open all the time. That’s a benefit to the community, before the man “gives back” a dime for any charity or cause. Meijer’s stores employ a lot of people. For some, they may not be the employer of first choice. I’ve known quite a few people who found themselves unemployed and, needing a source of income quick while they figured out their larger strategy, went and got hired at Meijer.

They may not have liked it. It may have been a diversion from their career path rather than a step along the way. But if Fred Meijer hadn’t been rich, they wouldn’t have had a way to keep their heads above water while they worked out the bigger picture.

Now I know, the OWS crowd will tell us, they don’t really object to people being rich. They object to people cheating to get rich, which is why they’re down on Wall Street and big banks.

I’ve got news: You don’t think, when Meijer built new stores, Fred just wrote a check to cover the costs, do you? That’s not how major corporations do it. They finance those projects. Who provides the capital when you finance a construction job? Wall Street and big banks. Yeah. They’re the people you think are rotten because they’ll lend money to people like Fred and not to people like you – and damn it, you need that loan!

But people in finance are in it to make money, just like Fred. They would lend to Fred because Fred was rich and could pay them back. They won’t lend to you OWSers because you’re not and you can’t. You don’t even want to pay back your student loan. If they lent to people like you, they would lose their money, and they would have none left to lend to people like Fred who build stores so you can get infant suppositories in the middle of the night, and so you can get a job when everyone else in town tells you no.

Fred Meijer benefited his city, his state and his nation – not because he gave a lot of his wealth away, but because he made it in the first place, and he understood he had to do a lot of good for a lot of people in order to make it.

The OWS crowd should remember that the next time they start moaning about the evils of the 1 percent. They won’t, but they should.

© 2011 North Star Writers Group